15 ms·

When To Do What You Love

245 points by underdeserver 2y ago

wetpaws 2y ago
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fjordingo 2y ago
> if you're young and good at technology... > ... but if you want to become super rich, and you're young and good at technology, working on what you're most interested in becomes a good idea again. It's sad to me that the wealth inequality manifested and upheld by the current structure of capitalism, that people like Graham full throatily endorse, creates this mentality. "If you're young" is a euphemism for "if you are free from the necessities of responsibility, and so are able to forego the lack of consistent income (and if you're in the states, a lack of employer provided health care". pg, encourage the companies you give money to pay an equal portion of profits to their employees, and maybe even the "olds" can be free do what they love; rather than the fear induced indentured servitude currently so predominant. May even give us better products and solutions, or as you say, allow people to do actual "great work".
- slowmovintarget 2y ago
  > wealth inequality manifested and upheld by the current structure of capitalism I've been having this conversation over dinner with my wife for the last few years. What else is there? Here are the broadly categorized economic systems that I'm aware of (I sincerely request correction if I'm incomplete or mistaken): - Subsistence (hunter/gatherer, limited farming... etc.) - Despotism, feudalism, and other ruler-based economies that mix governance with economy by fiat - Marxism (and it's entanglements into governance: socialism and communism) - Capitalism, though it eventually captures governance as a failure mode Of these systems, with the possible exception of subsistence, only capitalism really works. All forms of Marxism ever practiced lead to despotism, which most of us can agree is a bad thing. Even with a benevolent dictator for life, that life ends and the system degenerates at most in two generations of hereditary leadership. How do you reset capitalism so that we refresh to healthy markets (a prerequisite for capitalism to act as a force for societal welfare)? How do you turn back the clock on regulatory capture, and monopolized consolidation where firms move to become parasitic instead of exchanging value? Is there something else? And no, Marxism and collectivism is not it. Drowning the individual is not it. Marxism hasn't lost its appeal precisely because it's one of the few models that addresses dramatic pay disparity. But it was created in Britain thinking about the factory workers of the time. We know now that it includes errors and misunderstandings of fundamental human behavior that make it turn into tyranny every time. We also know that it necessarily leads to central planning which is fragile and collapses. So that's not it. If not Marxism, and not capitalism, then what?
  - feedforward 2y ago
    > All forms of Marxism ever practiced lead to despotism, which most of us can agree is a bad thing. What you call a Marxist system is something that Marx said could only work in the most advanced country if it was ready for it, which in that time was Germany. He said such a system would not work elsewhere. So what form of Marxism failed? Even Lenin, who many Marxists did not consider Marxist, was a Marxist enough to say that Russia would not establish communism. That the Russian self-described Marxists had the chance to take power in Russia and they took it. That Lenin wanted to take power in early 1917 came as a surprise to Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev etc., in fact Trotsky was not even with Lenin then. It surprised them because it was not a Marxist idea. Then Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy, i.e. capitalism. Then he died. Marx clearly spelled out what not to do, and some did what he said not to do, then people attribute the failures of those who did what Marx said not to do, to Marx.
    - mionhe 2y ago
      This kind of argument seems to always pop up in this context. There have been 17 attempts that I'm aware of to create a government based off of the ideals that Marx preached. Of those 17 attempts, every one has ended up creating extreme poverty for the masses. Every one has led to massive amounts of death and abject misery. Every one has led to a dictator that sees his people as just cogs in a machine, easily replaced. No matter how great Marx's system is (and having seen the aftermath personally of one of those attempts to enact it, I'm inclined to think that his system of thinking is semi-articulate garbage), it's obvious that we can't do what he prescribed and get the results he claimed we would. Frankly, the part where all of the power temporarily concentrates before redistribution is the problem area: no one can withstand the temptation to just keep it. Or possibly they never intended to let it go in the first place.
      - desumeku 2y ago
        There are far more than 17 capitalist countries which meet every criteria you've listed as an evil of Communism.
      - 2y ago
throwaway98797 2y ago
it’s dangerous to take advice from those with superlative ability if you are only slightly above average often times it’s not for you be honest of your place in this world enjoy the luck you have it’s better than most
jacknews 2y ago
More self-serving feel-good from pg The way to make billions, or even millions, is OWNERSHIP. Own the profits or some of the profits of other people's hard work and creativity in some way, either directly or indirectly (eg property), or the promise of such profits (stocks), and trade that. That's not to say you shouldn't work hard or create, yourself. Just that hard work, creativity, etc, in and of itself, doesn't pay. It pays off when you work harder (or smarter, or just luckier) than other people, in order to win or create ownership, that other people will then contribute to. Just like pg did.
- tightbookkeeper 2y ago
  If you make studio pottery you likely own everything, and still dont make money. Many FAANG employees are clearly in it for the money or status and have no real ownership. (Inb4 RSUs. They are treated as cash.) The Marxist analysis makes most sense in the context it came from - the Industrial Revolution where most economic value was concentrated in expensive machinery.
  - ponector 2y ago
    Their comment said to own other people's profit. And that is true: the only way to get really rich is to own results of work of millions other people. Like Musk, Zuckerberg or Mohammed bin Salman.
    - tightbookkeeper 2y ago
      And my comment argues why that’s not true: - many people prioritizing money are workers - many (most?) owners are not making money So in the context of this essay “choosing ownership” is not the key career choice facing young people.
    - badpun 2y ago
      Sport stars and top actors, musicians etc. are really rich too and they don't own other people's profit (or, at least, they made majority of their wealth off their own work, and then added extra money on top via investing their earnings).
breck 2y ago
I didn't find any new terms here, but it was a great synthesis of a lot of his work. I also really enjoy the shorter length of the recent essays. Here's my user test: https://news.pub/?try=https://www.loom.com/embed/9ac3f3b85fd94ea9ad5a880503a17eab?sid=b15d3378-1893-486d-ba15-9bee2a319223 https://news.pub/?try=https://www.loom.com/embed/9ac3f3b85fd...
BohdanPetryshyn 2y ago
I'm young and at a pivotal point in my life, where I need to decide whether to remain in my well-paying job in software engineering or pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. This article has deeply inspired me, hitting at just the right moment to encourage me to aim higher and take the leap.
- dv35z 2y ago
  Two things to check out: (1) find out the best university in your area, and see if they have a business incubator. Check out their events page - there's usually something interesting happening in the next couple of weeks - go to it with an open mind! Creators, investors, students, entrepreneurs all in one spot. Meet the organizer, and find out what kind of workshops would be valuable, and consider running one! They will help promote you! Usually, they'll have a busy group chat (WhatsApp) - get in there and see what services people need / offer... (2) Find out if there is a community maker-space in your area, and take a tour. You'll meet some of the most creative, entrepreneurial people there, and you'll see up-close, what's possible with product prototyping these days - 3D printed ceramics, robotics, CNC wood carving bots, metal carving, etc - and computer/code labs! I ran a "Get your product on Shopify" workshop in a maker-space. It was tons of fun and high value - got people booted up with a custom domain name, photo of their product online, Buy it Now button, make a business card with a QR code. For software experts this kind of thing is easy (a couple of hours etc), but for most people - it can feel like an extremely complicated mission (managing DNS records, or adjusting a theme's CSS - super tricky!). Not that you need to go be a Shopify installer! But the point is that you can help turn someones dream into reality, and its satisfying for all involved. Best of luck in the next chapter of your journey!
  - BohdanPetryshyn 2y ago
    Thank you, I found this advice very helpful!
- underdeserver 2y ago
  Be an entrepreneur. If it's not for you, you'll know within a few years.
nuancebydefault 2y ago
Probably the culture of where I live is very different from the other side of the ocean, but... why is money such a big point in this article? I love my work and I'm decently paid and... I don't really want to be rich. With the given title, I would advocate for/stress on contentment rather than monetary richness.
- hnthr_w_y 2y ago
  honestly, I want to be rich. I do make a decent living, but not enough to quit my job. At this rate I'll have to work until I'm 50 or 60, which is same as everyone else, so cry me a river, but even so, it would be nice to dedicate more time to hobby which at this rate I can at most dedicate a weekend to, but in practice it's a bit less because I have to go out with the wife and I have visit my family, etc. Most weeks I have a full day at most to pursue anything.
  - nuancebydefault 2y ago
    From what i understand my life is very similar as yours. One out of 7 seems not too shabby though. Maybe a cliché but... my advice would be to try to get most out of each simple experience. Today my spouse and kid went for a long walk together with me... while I could have been doing woodworking. I _tried_ to teach the kid the joy of walking without having too much on his mind. I also started conversations with strangers while waiting in the ice cream queue. There's always something to learn from that. I guess you by now understand my advocating for contentment.
    - kragen 2y ago
      this afternoon i couldn't have been doing woodworking because i don't have woodworking tools. that's not just because i can't afford them; my apartment is not really big enough for a woodworking shop, and i worry that the wiring might catch fire if i tried to plug in a high-powered saw. i'm having a hard time being content, despite going on a walk with my wife this morning and having lots of lovely conversations with strangers over the last three days, because the rent is due in two weeks and i'm nervous about whether i'll have enough. ever since i got covid for the third time in april, at which point i couldn't get paxlovid, i don't remember things like i used to. (i suspect that with enough money i could have gotten paxlovid.) also, my aunt is going to die soon, and i don't have the money to visit her before that i really wish i'd spent more effort on making, and saving, money 20 years ago. i wouldn't want to spend my life on it, and no amount of money will keep me from dying, but right now i'm spending a lot of my life coping with the consequences of not having it
fuzzfactor 2y ago
>you have to choose between working on what interests you the most and something else I think this is where most people are and it can be common for all effort to amount to nothing more than "survival activities", with fewer options than normal occurring under increasing macro economic challenges. In that case I would think it's good to never completely stop doing what you love most that is realistically within reach. Even if you can not give it very much of the full dedication it might deserve. If you can't be fully "in the game" due to insufficient resources or something like that, maybe you can function somewhat adjacent in an even more sustainable way, maintaining better readiness through time for some rare opportunities that are almost never attainable, or for very long. And keep it in perspective for opportunities to up the priority or focus, even as less-elusive things might come more easily within reach along the way.
euvin 2y ago
Can someone help me understand the first footnote? >[1] These examples show why it's a mistake to assume that economic inequality must be evidence of some kind of brokenness or unfairness. It's obvious that different people have different interests, and that some interests yield far more money than others, so how can it not be obvious that some people will end up much richer than others? In a world where some people like to write enterprise software and others like to make studio pottery, economic inequality is the natural outcome. Yes, clearly different passions lead to different industries which mean different economic outcomes. But when people talk about "fairness", it usually means quality of life right? The ability to afford good healthcare, high quality food, housing, security, providing for a family, social opportunities. How are we defining fairness? I have no idea of how to solve this or create the perfect utopia, btw. I'm just confused on the point of the footnote.
- ensignavenger 2y ago
  I hear a lot of focus on money and not just quality of life. One issue with quality of life is that as you improve it for the bottom, the expecations of what a minimal quality should be tend to go up. So you may never really "solve" it, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be continually trying to improve.
- Mahsaaden 2y ago
  i think it's pretty clear what pg means. more useful products = more money = better outcomes in life. no one wants more pins and posters of some artist's OCs, they want software that helps the world and actually changes lives for the better. studio pottery won't do that.
  - euvin 2y ago
    To be clear, I like the idea of making something really useful and being rewarded from bettering other people's lives. I don't doubt that if you make something really useful for the world, you can gain a lot from it. But when people talk about fairness, (I assume) they're usually thinking about the successful scammers, predatory practices, people not contributing to the world yet profiting a lot from it. They may also think about "essential workers" who, in contrast, may live paycheck to paycheck. It becomes blurrier to me when I think about who "deserves" what.
black_13 2y ago
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f3dora 2y ago
new twist on capitalist pitch: "There are even some people who have a genuine intellectual interest in making money. This is distinct from mere greed. They just can't help noticing when something is mispriced, and can't help doing something about it. It's like a puzzle for them." the older Paul gets, he sounds just like rest of his club mates!
- shafyy 2y ago
  The mask is coming off
- ponector 2y ago
  Better that way than usual startup bullshit about changing the world to a better place.
- WorkerBee28474 2y ago
  I'm someone who is not rich but is interested in capital markets. My net worth is less than USD 100,000 and I spend hours each week downloading market data, looking for trade ideas, writing scripts, running statistical tests, implementing trading strategies, and analyzing the results. I expect to be quite well off someday as a result of this hobby, but for now it's just an interest.
smokel 2y ago
From an investors perspective looking at a group of people with randomly distributed interests, it seems like great advice to motivate each and every one of them to pursue their interest with all their energy and waste their lives on it. Some might get lucky and make the world a better place. From the perspective of an individual who only gets assigned one or a few subjects to be interested in, not knowing whether these will bring fortune or not, not so useful advice. Chances are that you will fail, lose money and friends, and forget to spend time with your loved ones.
shafyy 2y ago
I gladens me to see that the sentiment here on HN is getting increasingly critical of PG and other VCs and Silicon Valley figures. Let's just hope that PG doesn't decide to pull the plug on HN some day.
- smokel 2y ago
  Aren't we the court jesters who entertain them with our wit, or the court scientists who provide them with early insights into which technologies will be worth investing in?
  - voidhorse 2y ago
    Too accurate.
tightbookkeeper 2y ago
> you don't know what makes you happy, what the various kinds of work are really like, or how well you could do them A very succinct explanation of complex emotional challenge.
ergonaught 2y ago
If you aren’t young, you aren’t worth Paul taking a moment to write a sentence about you, though, so go to hell. Apparently.
- yayitswei 2y ago
  He's targeting a particular audience in this essay. Doesn't mean he hates everyone else. In fact, in other essays he says that being an older founder can actually be an advantage in some ways.
andrewstuart 2y ago
When friends say they are "going to start a business", I ask them "Why? Do you know why, do you know what your goal is?". In most cases people can't really explain exactly why, and that's fine and normal. Only after years of being in business did certain things come clear to me. Are you there to make money, to follow your passion, to succeed with something, anything, to own your own time and life? The naive might say "all of the above", but they are not compatible. You may find that you care more about owning your own time than working on stuff you are passionate about. I've seen quite a few people start a business to work on something they are passionate about and then go out of business, when they COULD have stayed in business if they had been prepared to make money doing stuff they didn't love. What is more important in this case, being in business or doing stuff you love?
cushychicken 2y ago
Don't wait. Don't wait till the end of college to figure out what to work on. Don't even wait for internships during college. You don't necessarily need a job doing x in order to work on x; often you can just start doing it in some form yourself. What silly advice. I didn’t even know my “what to work on” existed until I was near the end of my junior year of college. XD
- euvin 2y ago
  I took that phrase to mean "don't be blocked by any institution, person, or societal expectation to pursue what's interesting to you". Could be casual research, a cursory glance, or a deep internal investigation of yourself. Which is always good to start as soon as you're aware of it. It's fine if you figure it out near the end of your junior year, your first job, or a midlife crisis. "Best time to start was yesterday, 2nd best is now" type of thing.
abhaynayar 2y ago
> One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people? Reminded me of this gem: https://moxie.org/2013/01/07/career-advice.html https://moxie.org/2013/01/07/career-advice.html
- hypertexthero 2y ago
  And this interview at Slashdot: > Please, don’t spend your late teens or early twenties in front of your computer at a startup. If you’re a young person, I think the very best thing you could do is get together with a group of friends and commit to a one year experiment in which the substantial part of your life will be focused on discovery and not be dedicated to wage work – however that looks for you. Get an instrument, learn three chords, and go on tour; find a derelict boat and cross an ocean; hitchhike to Alaska; build a fleet of dirigibles; construct a UAV that will engage with the emerging local police UAVs; whatever – but make it count. — Moxie Marlinspike https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/179256/moxie-marlinspike-answers-your-questions https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/179256/moxie-...
  - _dark_matter_ 2y ago
    We don't deserve Moxie. What an inspiration
  - Alacart 2y ago
    While I agree that would be great for many people, how are 99% of young people supposed to survive during this time? How do they pay their rent, buy groceries, and pay for these explorations without wage work?
    - hypertexthero 2y ago
      They can’t. Need to have the day job and try to do something in the night, or vice versa. We need a basic income. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=basic+income https://hn.algolia.com/?q=basic+income
alexashka 2y ago
Work is what you do to keep society and your place in it going. Hence it's an intersection of what society needs and what you are capable of. The issue with modern degenerate society is that nobody'll tell you what society needs - you're supposed to figure it out through gossip. This is extremely stupid. People who write articles attempting to solve collective problems at an individual level are blaming the victim and giving terrible advice without realizing it. So it goes.
- theGnuMe 2y ago
  Well the reason is that nobody knows what society needs… or stated differently, what ends up being useful is non-obvious. So you can’t plan it outside of some general parameters.
asdf6969 2y ago
Extremely out of touch and not useful at all. He needs to learn how to tell when he has something important to say and when he’s just yapping. How can he think making just a little bit of money is even an option? I have a very high income and I still can’t afford a home. I can’t even imagine how terrible my life would be if I took risks.
- deleted 2y ago
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- msvan 2y ago
  This is because you chose to live an expensive life. Most of the world gets by on less.
  - steve_adams_86 2y ago
    Most of the world also gets by on much more affordable housing too, though.
  - asdf6969 2y ago
    I spend around 25% of my income
    - sph 2y ago
      How much time do you spend following someone else's dream? Wealth is inconsequential if you spend 80 hours a week at a FAANG and have no time left for yourself, to plan a different life. The famous golden handcuffs.
      - not-really-true 2y ago
        That's not quite true though, you can get a pretty well paid job in FAANG adjacent that leaves you with enough free time too. Living in expensive areas has a lot of cons too, a social life for instance, which you don't really have in a rural area. If that's not important to you, great, seems like you have it all figured it out, live on a small income in the middle of nowhere, but not everybody's dream looks like this
mattlondon 2y ago
Please if you are young and still in full-time education and reading this, please please please take it with a pinch of salt. What you are reading is essentially a sales-pitch trying to lure you in. This has the tell-tale signs of classic hard sales pitches - playing on the fear of losing out, offering big rewards, comparing to a negative stereotypes, appealing to your ego/self-worth about not being ignorant, flattery by dismissing it as not greed but an intellectual puzzle for smart people like you etc etc. Your internal alarm bells that stop you getting suckered into things should be going crazy about now! He has a vested interest in getting as many people as possible to throw themselves and their lives 110% into doing a start-up so that he can invest in it and make money off of your work. For every successful billionaire (or hell even millionaire) that comes out of his "sales funnel", there will be hundreds if not thousands of people whose full-potential/career-potential/earning-potential will be severely curtailed as a result. They'll waste many of their most productive years, potentially building up massive debts in the process, chasing some start-up dream before eventually capitulating and failing before trying to get a "steady job" when they find themselves burnt-out and debt-ridden with nothing to show for it after 5-10 years of slog. Meanwhile 5-10 years at a FAANG you would have pocketed several million in total-comp (probably in the region of 5+mil USD in the bay area I guess), working in low-stress environments with some of the best engineers, researchers, PMs, and leaders in the world while still having time and energy to live your life too. It is a numbers game for him. Think carefully about what you are getting into before throwing your future life away. Good luck.
tippytippytango 2y ago
Passion is too generic of a word and that gets confusing when it comes to advice like this. It could be someone is passionate about the activity itself, passionate about the idea of being successful, obsessed intellectually with a question, passionate about wanting to prove something…
hypertexthero 2y ago
Also worth thinking about whether you want to be in the bridge of a ship with lots of other people on board, prefer working in a different deck like Engineering, or flying your own light shuttle craft about! From a commencement speech by a young person called Grant Sanderson: > Influence is not distributed uniformly in the population and I for one would feel a lot more comfortable if it was you who were at the helm guiding this crazy ship that we're all riding. > If you step into the next chapter of life with an implacable focus on adding values to others, you're more likely to be the ones at the helm. > If you recognize that action precedes motivation, you're more likely to be at the helm. > And if you ask what's possible now that wasn't 10 years ago, you're more likely to be at the helm. > If you appreciate just how much power you have to shape the lives of the generation that follows you, you're more likely to be at the helm. > And if you remain adaptable to a changing world, treating passion not as a destination but as a fuel, following not dreams but opportunities, you're more likely to be at the helm. — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3I3kAg2J7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3I3kAg2J7w — https://www.3blue1brown.com/about https://www.3blue1brown.com/about
jll29 2y ago
When you work for money, you'd rather do something else, and you aspire to save up enough so that you can stop and do something else. When you love your work, it doesn't feel like work, and you don't want to stop. (having said this, I know some people who started out wanting money in order to do something useful with it later, however now they are so hooked to optimize their income more and more -- money has become their main driver and primary motivation.)
fuzzfactor 2y ago
[dupe]
throawayonthe 2y ago
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pncnmnp 2y ago
Maybe it's the youth in me, but I wholly and fully agree with PG here, and I strive to live by it. However, there's another fascinating school of thought that I read about back when I was an undergrad. It comes from Richard Muller, who used to be quite active on Quora back in the day: > “Follow your passion” or the similar “Follow your dreams.” I’ve seen this advice lead people into paths in which they could not have productive lives or support themselves or families. > With this advice, many kids will choose to become professional athletes, and then fail. My daughter (Elizabeth Muller) once wanted to become a professional dancer. I think she is very glad now that she instead went to UC San Diego, majored in math and literature, and got a masters degree in international management. (She is now the CEO of our non-profit BerkeleyEarth.org.) One of her friends, in contrast, decided to become a professional bicycle racer (encouraged by her parents) and she now supports herself by selling and repairing bicycles. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think it was what she envisioned when she took this career path. > I suggest to children that before they set out on a career path, they consider what will happen if they are the 1000th best in the field. If your field is boxing, you will either be completely out of work, be a sparring partner, or (if you are lucky) be running your own gym. (Or, maybe, you’ll be an enforcer for some mob.) If you are a ballet dancer, it is unlikely that you will be performing; you will probably be teaching children how to dance ballet. If your field is physics or math, you will have very good income, have the respect of your neighbors (maybe they’ll think you are a genius), and a good diverse and productive life. > I suggest instead that you teach children to try to plan their future lives, to design their futures. They should approach it as they would a challenging homework problem. Learn more about possible careers, and what they are like. Don’t choose too early, since many careers (running Berkeley Earth?) are not obvious to a youngster. Get a broad education, and do a good job at it. Study hard and learn. Get familiar with the world. Beware of childhood passions; they are based on a limited experience, and may not be a good choice for a career. I'm not sure how to share the link to the post itself: https://www.quora.com/What-is-in-your-opinion-the-most-damaging-advice-people-can-give-to-children https://www.quora.com/What-is-in-your-opinion-the-most-damag...
- titanomachy 2y ago
  Bold to assume that someone managing daddy's nonprofit foundation is happier and more fulfilled than someone fixing and selling bikes for a living.
coolThingsFirst 2y ago
tldr: be young. why the hell arent you young! it's cool.
joshdavham 2y ago
I love his point about following your passion if your passion is in a narrow niche (especially if it involves technology). Trying to be the best at something popular will probably lead to failure, but I think people would be surprised how easy it is to become top 100 at something niche.
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
  I used to work for someone who won all the races in his age group because he was the only entrant in that age group.
wayoverthecloud 2y ago
Does anyone who has successfully followed their passion project and has been financially successful as well provide some comments on this article? Is it just PG's way of luring in wannabe-enterpreneurs with words or does it hold some value? I am in no position to judge this since I am still working a day job.
- yieldcrv 2y ago
  There are plenty of ways of getting non-dilutive capital, PG just wants the blood-equity of young people that are beginning to wise up to being Transylvania’s cattle You dont need to be young, you dont need to give up preferred shares to investors, and the real survivorship bias in this game are the entrepreneurs that can afford to try again multiple times on other startups in quick succession…. because they already have capital Selling that dream to people excluded from that class while deflecting on what the survivors biases really are is how you know it’s a lure
udev4096 2y ago
> Bill gates A typical YC example. Why not take Dennis Ritchie or Ken Thompson or Brian Kernighan as an example?
cchi_co 2y ago
When your goal is to make a modest or steady income, you often have to focus on what the market values. It's like a big luck when your interests align with market demand
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
  Yeah. I feel like I've already used up all my luck getting a job where I can work on a computer indoors in air conditioning as a woman wearing jeans, and not have to dress up, present myself, hurt myself, risk my life, like so many other jobs
  - kylehotchkiss 2y ago
    Sometimes I wonder what retirement looks like when you're able to do this for a career while WFH - can we push a little further than many people because the work is less physically demanding, or is being still for this long every day it's own type of wear? I can't imagine just stopping one day, I'd really prefer to switch to part time work at a slower pace.
nickd2001 2y ago
Personally I feel that "Beating the averages" was an awesome article that was of technical interest and can apply to many things not just making money, and worth reading perhaps by every s/w developer. Whereas this article is of nothing like the same quality, it seems largely money oriented to me.
calimoro78 2y ago
This article assumes your passions are highly monetizable.
- ascorbic 2y ago
  I'm not sure how you took that from the article. Its whole premise is that some passions are more monetizable than others.
deleted 2y ago
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will-burner 2y ago
This is something I think about a lot and I thought the article was pretty solid. My father is a musician, so he always told me to do what I love. I tried to do that by becoming a research mathematician, that didn't work on and now I do something I don't love (but like some days) that consists of sitting at a computer writing code. >One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people? I've had 3 careers: working with high school students in low income areas, being an academic research mathematician, and now being a data scientist. The people I liked the best and who I would like to become like were the teachers I worked with at the high schools in low income areas. >Indeed, the difference in character between different kinds of work is magnified by the fact that everyone else is facing the same decisions as you. If you choose a kind of work mainly for how well it pays, you'll be surrounded by other people who chose it for the same reason, and that will make it even more soul-sucking than it seems from the outside. Whereas if you choose work you're genuinely interested in, you'll be surrounded mostly by other people who are genuinely interested in it, and that will make it extra inspiring. This pretty well states the soul-suckingness of working in industry.
- anon291 2y ago
  I know the teacher thing is a nice 'feel-good' example, but based on the experience of my own mother's colleagues, for many teachers in these low income areas, the paycheck is also all they care about.
  - will-burner 2y ago
    For me, it wasn't just about a feel-good thing, I enjoyed being around and had the most fun time on a day to day basis when hanging out and working with the high school teachers. I met them all at a summer program, so it was probably the more engaged teachers. Also, the teachers were from the same demographics as the students, so it wasn't white savior type people, but people from the actual community.
    - anon291 2y ago
tuktuktuk 2y ago
the question is when
aserafini 2y ago
I wonder what Paul's definition of "young" is in the sentence and why he qualifies this as only applicable to "young" people. Is he proposing that "old" people will have misaligned thinking about what needs to be built? I am 41 with two kids. > if you're young and good at technology, your unconscious instincts about what would be interesting to work on are very well aligned with what needs to be built
DmitryTitov 2y ago
Have you ever been in a situation where you really want to do what you love to do, but simply don't have the money to exist and have to do something else?
- Viliam1234 2y ago
  Perhaps a lot of advice should start with: "Step Zero -- have enough money so that you can afford to do Steps One through Ten".

245 points by underdeserver 2y ago

[dead]

> if you're young and good at technology... > ... but if you want to become super rich, and you're young and good at technology, working on what you're most interested in becomes a good idea again. It's sad to me that the wealth inequality manifested and upheld by the current structure of capitalism, that people like Graham full throatily endorse, creates this mentality. "If you're young" is a euphemism for "if you are free from the necessities of responsibility, and so are able to forego the lack of consistent income (and if you're in the states, a lack of employer provided health care". pg, encourage the companies you give money to pay an equal portion of profits to their employees, and maybe even the "olds" can be free do what they love; rather than the fear induced indentured servitude currently so predominant. May even give us better products and solutions, or as you say, allow people to do actual "great work".

slowmovintarget 2y ago
> wealth inequality manifested and upheld by the current structure of capitalism I've been having this conversation over dinner with my wife for the last few years. What else is there? Here are the broadly categorized economic systems that I'm aware of (I sincerely request correction if I'm incomplete or mistaken): - Subsistence (hunter/gatherer, limited farming... etc.) - Despotism, feudalism, and other ruler-based economies that mix governance with economy by fiat - Marxism (and it's entanglements into governance: socialism and communism) - Capitalism, though it eventually captures governance as a failure mode Of these systems, with the possible exception of subsistence, only capitalism really works. All forms of Marxism ever practiced lead to despotism, which most of us can agree is a bad thing. Even with a benevolent dictator for life, that life ends and the system degenerates at most in two generations of hereditary leadership. How do you reset capitalism so that we refresh to healthy markets (a prerequisite for capitalism to act as a force for societal welfare)? How do you turn back the clock on regulatory capture, and monopolized consolidation where firms move to become parasitic instead of exchanging value? Is there something else? And no, Marxism and collectivism is not it. Drowning the individual is not it. Marxism hasn't lost its appeal precisely because it's one of the few models that addresses dramatic pay disparity. But it was created in Britain thinking about the factory workers of the time. We know now that it includes errors and misunderstandings of fundamental human behavior that make it turn into tyranny every time. We also know that it necessarily leads to central planning which is fragile and collapses. So that's not it. If not Marxism, and not capitalism, then what?
- feedforward 2y ago
  > All forms of Marxism ever practiced lead to despotism, which most of us can agree is a bad thing. What you call a Marxist system is something that Marx said could only work in the most advanced country if it was ready for it, which in that time was Germany. He said such a system would not work elsewhere. So what form of Marxism failed? Even Lenin, who many Marxists did not consider Marxist, was a Marxist enough to say that Russia would not establish communism. That the Russian self-described Marxists had the chance to take power in Russia and they took it. That Lenin wanted to take power in early 1917 came as a surprise to Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev etc., in fact Trotsky was not even with Lenin then. It surprised them because it was not a Marxist idea. Then Lenin introduced the New Economic Policy, i.e. capitalism. Then he died. Marx clearly spelled out what not to do, and some did what he said not to do, then people attribute the failures of those who did what Marx said not to do, to Marx.
  - mionhe 2y ago
    This kind of argument seems to always pop up in this context. There have been 17 attempts that I'm aware of to create a government based off of the ideals that Marx preached. Of those 17 attempts, every one has ended up creating extreme poverty for the masses. Every one has led to massive amounts of death and abject misery. Every one has led to a dictator that sees his people as just cogs in a machine, easily replaced. No matter how great Marx's system is (and having seen the aftermath personally of one of those attempts to enact it, I'm inclined to think that his system of thinking is semi-articulate garbage), it's obvious that we can't do what he prescribed and get the results he claimed we would. Frankly, the part where all of the power temporarily concentrates before redistribution is the problem area: no one can withstand the temptation to just keep it. Or possibly they never intended to let it go in the first place.
    - desumeku 2y ago
      There are far more than 17 capitalist countries which meet every criteria you've listed as an evil of Communism.
    - 2y ago

throwaway98797 2y ago

it’s dangerous to take advice from those with superlative ability if you are only slightly above average often times it’s not for you be honest of your place in this world enjoy the luck you have it’s better than most

jacknews 2y ago

More self-serving feel-good from pg The way to make billions, or even millions, is OWNERSHIP. Own the profits or some of the profits of other people's hard work and creativity in some way, either directly or indirectly (eg property), or the promise of such profits (stocks), and trade that. That's not to say you shouldn't work hard or create, yourself. Just that hard work, creativity, etc, in and of itself, doesn't pay. It pays off when you work harder (or smarter, or just luckier) than other people, in order to win or create ownership, that other people will then contribute to. Just like pg did.

tightbookkeeper 2y ago
If you make studio pottery you likely own everything, and still dont make money. Many FAANG employees are clearly in it for the money or status and have no real ownership. (Inb4 RSUs. They are treated as cash.) The Marxist analysis makes most sense in the context it came from - the Industrial Revolution where most economic value was concentrated in expensive machinery.
- ponector 2y ago
  Their comment said to own other people's profit. And that is true: the only way to get really rich is to own results of work of millions other people. Like Musk, Zuckerberg or Mohammed bin Salman.
  - tightbookkeeper 2y ago
    And my comment argues why that’s not true: - many people prioritizing money are workers - many (most?) owners are not making money So in the context of this essay “choosing ownership” is not the key career choice facing young people.
  - badpun 2y ago
    Sport stars and top actors, musicians etc. are really rich too and they don't own other people's profit (or, at least, they made majority of their wealth off their own work, and then added extra money on top via investing their earnings).

breck 2y ago

I didn't find any new terms here, but it was a great synthesis of a lot of his work. I also really enjoy the shorter length of the recent essays. Here's my user test: https://news.pub/?try=https://www.loom.com/embed/9ac3f3b85fd94ea9ad5a880503a17eab?sid=b15d3378-1893-486d-ba15-9bee2a319223 https://news.pub/?try=https://www.loom.com/embed/9ac3f3b85fd...

BohdanPetryshyn 2y ago

I'm young and at a pivotal point in my life, where I need to decide whether to remain in my well-paying job in software engineering or pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur. This article has deeply inspired me, hitting at just the right moment to encourage me to aim higher and take the leap.

dv35z 2y ago
Two things to check out: (1) find out the best university in your area, and see if they have a business incubator. Check out their events page - there's usually something interesting happening in the next couple of weeks - go to it with an open mind! Creators, investors, students, entrepreneurs all in one spot. Meet the organizer, and find out what kind of workshops would be valuable, and consider running one! They will help promote you! Usually, they'll have a busy group chat (WhatsApp) - get in there and see what services people need / offer... (2) Find out if there is a community maker-space in your area, and take a tour. You'll meet some of the most creative, entrepreneurial people there, and you'll see up-close, what's possible with product prototyping these days - 3D printed ceramics, robotics, CNC wood carving bots, metal carving, etc - and computer/code labs! I ran a "Get your product on Shopify" workshop in a maker-space. It was tons of fun and high value - got people booted up with a custom domain name, photo of their product online, Buy it Now button, make a business card with a QR code. For software experts this kind of thing is easy (a couple of hours etc), but for most people - it can feel like an extremely complicated mission (managing DNS records, or adjusting a theme's CSS - super tricky!). Not that you need to go be a Shopify installer! But the point is that you can help turn someones dream into reality, and its satisfying for all involved. Best of luck in the next chapter of your journey!
- BohdanPetryshyn 2y ago
  Thank you, I found this advice very helpful!
underdeserver 2y ago
Be an entrepreneur. If it's not for you, you'll know within a few years.

nuancebydefault 2y ago

Probably the culture of where I live is very different from the other side of the ocean, but... why is money such a big point in this article? I love my work and I'm decently paid and... I don't really want to be rich. With the given title, I would advocate for/stress on contentment rather than monetary richness.

hnthr_w_y 2y ago
honestly, I want to be rich. I do make a decent living, but not enough to quit my job. At this rate I'll have to work until I'm 50 or 60, which is same as everyone else, so cry me a river, but even so, it would be nice to dedicate more time to hobby which at this rate I can at most dedicate a weekend to, but in practice it's a bit less because I have to go out with the wife and I have visit my family, etc. Most weeks I have a full day at most to pursue anything.
- nuancebydefault 2y ago
  From what i understand my life is very similar as yours. One out of 7 seems not too shabby though. Maybe a cliché but... my advice would be to try to get most out of each simple experience. Today my spouse and kid went for a long walk together with me... while I could have been doing woodworking. I _tried_ to teach the kid the joy of walking without having too much on his mind. I also started conversations with strangers while waiting in the ice cream queue. There's always something to learn from that. I guess you by now understand my advocating for contentment.
  - kragen 2y ago
    this afternoon i couldn't have been doing woodworking because i don't have woodworking tools. that's not just because i can't afford them; my apartment is not really big enough for a woodworking shop, and i worry that the wiring might catch fire if i tried to plug in a high-powered saw. i'm having a hard time being content, despite going on a walk with my wife this morning and having lots of lovely conversations with strangers over the last three days, because the rent is due in two weeks and i'm nervous about whether i'll have enough. ever since i got covid for the third time in april, at which point i couldn't get paxlovid, i don't remember things like i used to. (i suspect that with enough money i could have gotten paxlovid.) also, my aunt is going to die soon, and i don't have the money to visit her before that i really wish i'd spent more effort on making, and saving, money 20 years ago. i wouldn't want to spend my life on it, and no amount of money will keep me from dying, but right now i'm spending a lot of my life coping with the consequences of not having it

fuzzfactor 2y ago

>you have to choose between working on what interests you the most and something else I think this is where most people are and it can be common for all effort to amount to nothing more than "survival activities", with fewer options than normal occurring under increasing macro economic challenges. In that case I would think it's good to never completely stop doing what you love most that is realistically within reach. Even if you can not give it very much of the full dedication it might deserve. If you can't be fully "in the game" due to insufficient resources or something like that, maybe you can function somewhat adjacent in an even more sustainable way, maintaining better readiness through time for some rare opportunities that are almost never attainable, or for very long. And keep it in perspective for opportunities to up the priority or focus, even as less-elusive things might come more easily within reach along the way.

euvin 2y ago

Can someone help me understand the first footnote? >[1] These examples show why it's a mistake to assume that economic inequality must be evidence of some kind of brokenness or unfairness. It's obvious that different people have different interests, and that some interests yield far more money than others, so how can it not be obvious that some people will end up much richer than others? In a world where some people like to write enterprise software and others like to make studio pottery, economic inequality is the natural outcome. Yes, clearly different passions lead to different industries which mean different economic outcomes. But when people talk about "fairness", it usually means quality of life right? The ability to afford good healthcare, high quality food, housing, security, providing for a family, social opportunities. How are we defining fairness? I have no idea of how to solve this or create the perfect utopia, btw. I'm just confused on the point of the footnote.

ensignavenger 2y ago
I hear a lot of focus on money and not just quality of life. One issue with quality of life is that as you improve it for the bottom, the expecations of what a minimal quality should be tend to go up. So you may never really "solve" it, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be continually trying to improve.
Mahsaaden 2y ago
i think it's pretty clear what pg means. more useful products = more money = better outcomes in life. no one wants more pins and posters of some artist's OCs, they want software that helps the world and actually changes lives for the better. studio pottery won't do that.
- euvin 2y ago
  To be clear, I like the idea of making something really useful and being rewarded from bettering other people's lives. I don't doubt that if you make something really useful for the world, you can gain a lot from it. But when people talk about fairness, (I assume) they're usually thinking about the successful scammers, predatory practices, people not contributing to the world yet profiting a lot from it. They may also think about "essential workers" who, in contrast, may live paycheck to paycheck. It becomes blurrier to me when I think about who "deserves" what.

black_13 2y ago

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f3dora 2y ago

new twist on capitalist pitch: "There are even some people who have a genuine intellectual interest in making money. This is distinct from mere greed. They just can't help noticing when something is mispriced, and can't help doing something about it. It's like a puzzle for them." the older Paul gets, he sounds just like rest of his club mates!

shafyy 2y ago
The mask is coming off
ponector 2y ago
Better that way than usual startup bullshit about changing the world to a better place.
WorkerBee28474 2y ago
I'm someone who is not rich but is interested in capital markets. My net worth is less than USD 100,000 and I spend hours each week downloading market data, looking for trade ideas, writing scripts, running statistical tests, implementing trading strategies, and analyzing the results. I expect to be quite well off someday as a result of this hobby, but for now it's just an interest.

smokel 2y ago

From an investors perspective looking at a group of people with randomly distributed interests, it seems like great advice to motivate each and every one of them to pursue their interest with all their energy and waste their lives on it. Some might get lucky and make the world a better place. From the perspective of an individual who only gets assigned one or a few subjects to be interested in, not knowing whether these will bring fortune or not, not so useful advice. Chances are that you will fail, lose money and friends, and forget to spend time with your loved ones.

shafyy 2y ago

I gladens me to see that the sentiment here on HN is getting increasingly critical of PG and other VCs and Silicon Valley figures. Let's just hope that PG doesn't decide to pull the plug on HN some day.

smokel 2y ago
Aren't we the court jesters who entertain them with our wit, or the court scientists who provide them with early insights into which technologies will be worth investing in?
- voidhorse 2y ago
  Too accurate.

tightbookkeeper 2y ago

> you don't know what makes you happy, what the various kinds of work are really like, or how well you could do them A very succinct explanation of complex emotional challenge.

ergonaught 2y ago

If you aren’t young, you aren’t worth Paul taking a moment to write a sentence about you, though, so go to hell. Apparently.

yayitswei 2y ago
He's targeting a particular audience in this essay. Doesn't mean he hates everyone else. In fact, in other essays he says that being an older founder can actually be an advantage in some ways.

andrewstuart 2y ago

When friends say they are "going to start a business", I ask them "Why? Do you know why, do you know what your goal is?". In most cases people can't really explain exactly why, and that's fine and normal. Only after years of being in business did certain things come clear to me. Are you there to make money, to follow your passion, to succeed with something, anything, to own your own time and life? The naive might say "all of the above", but they are not compatible. You may find that you care more about owning your own time than working on stuff you are passionate about. I've seen quite a few people start a business to work on something they are passionate about and then go out of business, when they COULD have stayed in business if they had been prepared to make money doing stuff they didn't love. What is more important in this case, being in business or doing stuff you love?

cushychicken 2y ago

Don't wait. Don't wait till the end of college to figure out what to work on. Don't even wait for internships during college. You don't necessarily need a job doing x in order to work on x; often you can just start doing it in some form yourself. What silly advice. I didn’t even know my “what to work on” existed until I was near the end of my junior year of college. XD

euvin 2y ago
I took that phrase to mean "don't be blocked by any institution, person, or societal expectation to pursue what's interesting to you". Could be casual research, a cursory glance, or a deep internal investigation of yourself. Which is always good to start as soon as you're aware of it. It's fine if you figure it out near the end of your junior year, your first job, or a midlife crisis. "Best time to start was yesterday, 2nd best is now" type of thing.

abhaynayar 2y ago

> One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people? Reminded me of this gem: https://moxie.org/2013/01/07/career-advice.html https://moxie.org/2013/01/07/career-advice.html

hypertexthero 2y ago
And this interview at Slashdot: > Please, don’t spend your late teens or early twenties in front of your computer at a startup. If you’re a young person, I think the very best thing you could do is get together with a group of friends and commit to a one year experiment in which the substantial part of your life will be focused on discovery and not be dedicated to wage work – however that looks for you. Get an instrument, learn three chords, and go on tour; find a derelict boat and cross an ocean; hitchhike to Alaska; build a fleet of dirigibles; construct a UAV that will engage with the emerging local police UAVs; whatever – but make it count. — Moxie Marlinspike https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/179256/moxie-marlinspike-answers-your-questions https://interviews.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/179256/moxie-...
- _dark_matter_ 2y ago
  We don't deserve Moxie. What an inspiration
- Alacart 2y ago
  While I agree that would be great for many people, how are 99% of young people supposed to survive during this time? How do they pay their rent, buy groceries, and pay for these explorations without wage work?
  - hypertexthero 2y ago
    They can’t. Need to have the day job and try to do something in the night, or vice versa. We need a basic income. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=basic+income https://hn.algolia.com/?q=basic+income

alexashka 2y ago

Work is what you do to keep society and your place in it going. Hence it's an intersection of what society needs and what you are capable of. The issue with modern degenerate society is that nobody'll tell you what society needs - you're supposed to figure it out through gossip. This is extremely stupid. People who write articles attempting to solve collective problems at an individual level are blaming the victim and giving terrible advice without realizing it. So it goes.

theGnuMe 2y ago
Well the reason is that nobody knows what society needs… or stated differently, what ends up being useful is non-obvious. So you can’t plan it outside of some general parameters.

asdf6969 2y ago

Extremely out of touch and not useful at all. He needs to learn how to tell when he has something important to say and when he’s just yapping. How can he think making just a little bit of money is even an option? I have a very high income and I still can’t afford a home. I can’t even imagine how terrible my life would be if I took risks.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
msvan 2y ago
This is because you chose to live an expensive life. Most of the world gets by on less.
- steve_adams_86 2y ago
  Most of the world also gets by on much more affordable housing too, though.
- asdf6969 2y ago
  I spend around 25% of my income
  - sph 2y ago
    How much time do you spend following someone else's dream? Wealth is inconsequential if you spend 80 hours a week at a FAANG and have no time left for yourself, to plan a different life. The famous golden handcuffs.
    - not-really-true 2y ago
      That's not quite true though, you can get a pretty well paid job in FAANG adjacent that leaves you with enough free time too. Living in expensive areas has a lot of cons too, a social life for instance, which you don't really have in a rural area. If that's not important to you, great, seems like you have it all figured it out, live on a small income in the middle of nowhere, but not everybody's dream looks like this

mattlondon 2y ago

Please if you are young and still in full-time education and reading this, please please please take it with a pinch of salt. What you are reading is essentially a sales-pitch trying to lure you in. This has the tell-tale signs of classic hard sales pitches - playing on the fear of losing out, offering big rewards, comparing to a negative stereotypes, appealing to your ego/self-worth about not being ignorant, flattery by dismissing it as not greed but an intellectual puzzle for smart people like you etc etc. Your internal alarm bells that stop you getting suckered into things should be going crazy about now! He has a vested interest in getting as many people as possible to throw themselves and their lives 110% into doing a start-up so that he can invest in it and make money off of your work. For every successful billionaire (or hell even millionaire) that comes out of his "sales funnel", there will be hundreds if not thousands of people whose full-potential/career-potential/earning-potential will be severely curtailed as a result. They'll waste many of their most productive years, potentially building up massive debts in the process, chasing some start-up dream before eventually capitulating and failing before trying to get a "steady job" when they find themselves burnt-out and debt-ridden with nothing to show for it after 5-10 years of slog. Meanwhile 5-10 years at a FAANG you would have pocketed several million in total-comp (probably in the region of 5+mil USD in the bay area I guess), working in low-stress environments with some of the best engineers, researchers, PMs, and leaders in the world while still having time and energy to live your life too. It is a numbers game for him. Think carefully about what you are getting into before throwing your future life away. Good luck.

tippytippytango 2y ago

Passion is too generic of a word and that gets confusing when it comes to advice like this. It could be someone is passionate about the activity itself, passionate about the idea of being successful, obsessed intellectually with a question, passionate about wanting to prove something…

hypertexthero 2y ago

Also worth thinking about whether you want to be in the bridge of a ship with lots of other people on board, prefer working in a different deck like Engineering, or flying your own light shuttle craft about! From a commencement speech by a young person called Grant Sanderson: > Influence is not distributed uniformly in the population and I for one would feel a lot more comfortable if it was you who were at the helm guiding this crazy ship that we're all riding. > If you step into the next chapter of life with an implacable focus on adding values to others, you're more likely to be the ones at the helm. > If you recognize that action precedes motivation, you're more likely to be at the helm. > And if you ask what's possible now that wasn't 10 years ago, you're more likely to be at the helm. > If you appreciate just how much power you have to shape the lives of the generation that follows you, you're more likely to be at the helm. > And if you remain adaptable to a changing world, treating passion not as a destination but as a fuel, following not dreams but opportunities, you're more likely to be at the helm. — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3I3kAg2J7w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3I3kAg2J7w — https://www.3blue1brown.com/about https://www.3blue1brown.com/about

jll29 2y ago

When you work for money, you'd rather do something else, and you aspire to save up enough so that you can stop and do something else. When you love your work, it doesn't feel like work, and you don't want to stop. (having said this, I know some people who started out wanting money in order to do something useful with it later, however now they are so hooked to optimize their income more and more -- money has become their main driver and primary motivation.)

fuzzfactor 2y ago

[dupe]

throawayonthe 2y ago

[dead]

pncnmnp 2y ago

Maybe it's the youth in me, but I wholly and fully agree with PG here, and I strive to live by it. However, there's another fascinating school of thought that I read about back when I was an undergrad. It comes from Richard Muller, who used to be quite active on Quora back in the day: > “Follow your passion” or the similar “Follow your dreams.” I’ve seen this advice lead people into paths in which they could not have productive lives or support themselves or families. > With this advice, many kids will choose to become professional athletes, and then fail. My daughter (Elizabeth Muller) once wanted to become a professional dancer. I think she is very glad now that she instead went to UC San Diego, majored in math and literature, and got a masters degree in international management. (She is now the CEO of our non-profit BerkeleyEarth.org.) One of her friends, in contrast, decided to become a professional bicycle racer (encouraged by her parents) and she now supports herself by selling and repairing bicycles. Nothing wrong with that, but I don’t think it was what she envisioned when she took this career path. > I suggest to children that before they set out on a career path, they consider what will happen if they are the 1000th best in the field. If your field is boxing, you will either be completely out of work, be a sparring partner, or (if you are lucky) be running your own gym. (Or, maybe, you’ll be an enforcer for some mob.) If you are a ballet dancer, it is unlikely that you will be performing; you will probably be teaching children how to dance ballet. If your field is physics or math, you will have very good income, have the respect of your neighbors (maybe they’ll think you are a genius), and a good diverse and productive life. > I suggest instead that you teach children to try to plan their future lives, to design their futures. They should approach it as they would a challenging homework problem. Learn more about possible careers, and what they are like. Don’t choose too early, since many careers (running Berkeley Earth?) are not obvious to a youngster. Get a broad education, and do a good job at it. Study hard and learn. Get familiar with the world. Beware of childhood passions; they are based on a limited experience, and may not be a good choice for a career. I'm not sure how to share the link to the post itself: https://www.quora.com/What-is-in-your-opinion-the-most-damaging-advice-people-can-give-to-children https://www.quora.com/What-is-in-your-opinion-the-most-damag...

titanomachy 2y ago
Bold to assume that someone managing daddy's nonprofit foundation is happier and more fulfilled than someone fixing and selling bikes for a living.

coolThingsFirst 2y ago

tldr: be young. why the hell arent you young! it's cool.

joshdavham 2y ago

I love his point about following your passion if your passion is in a narrow niche (especially if it involves technology). Trying to be the best at something popular will probably lead to failure, but I think people would be surprised how easy it is to become top 100 at something niche.

HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago
I used to work for someone who won all the races in his age group because he was the only entrant in that age group.

wayoverthecloud 2y ago

Does anyone who has successfully followed their passion project and has been financially successful as well provide some comments on this article? Is it just PG's way of luring in wannabe-enterpreneurs with words or does it hold some value? I am in no position to judge this since I am still working a day job.

yieldcrv 2y ago
There are plenty of ways of getting non-dilutive capital, PG just wants the blood-equity of young people that are beginning to wise up to being Transylvania’s cattle You dont need to be young, you dont need to give up preferred shares to investors, and the real survivorship bias in this game are the entrepreneurs that can afford to try again multiple times on other startups in quick succession…. because they already have capital Selling that dream to people excluded from that class while deflecting on what the survivors biases really are is how you know it’s a lure

udev4096 2y ago

> Bill gates A typical YC example. Why not take Dennis Ritchie or Ken Thompson or Brian Kernighan as an example?

cchi_co 2y ago

When your goal is to make a modest or steady income, you often have to focus on what the market values. It's like a big luck when your interests align with market demand

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 2y ago
Yeah. I feel like I've already used up all my luck getting a job where I can work on a computer indoors in air conditioning as a woman wearing jeans, and not have to dress up, present myself, hurt myself, risk my life, like so many other jobs
- kylehotchkiss 2y ago
  Sometimes I wonder what retirement looks like when you're able to do this for a career while WFH - can we push a little further than many people because the work is less physically demanding, or is being still for this long every day it's own type of wear? I can't imagine just stopping one day, I'd really prefer to switch to part time work at a slower pace.

nickd2001 2y ago

Personally I feel that "Beating the averages" was an awesome article that was of technical interest and can apply to many things not just making money, and worth reading perhaps by every s/w developer. Whereas this article is of nothing like the same quality, it seems largely money oriented to me.

calimoro78 2y ago

This article assumes your passions are highly monetizable.

ascorbic 2y ago
I'm not sure how you took that from the article. Its whole premise is that some passions are more monetizable than others.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

will-burner 2y ago

This is something I think about a lot and I thought the article was pretty solid. My father is a musician, so he always told me to do what I love. I tried to do that by becoming a research mathematician, that didn't work on and now I do something I don't love (but like some days) that consists of sitting at a computer writing code. >One useful trick for judging different kinds of work is to look at who your colleagues will be. You'll become like whoever you work with. Do you want to become like these people? I've had 3 careers: working with high school students in low income areas, being an academic research mathematician, and now being a data scientist. The people I liked the best and who I would like to become like were the teachers I worked with at the high schools in low income areas. >Indeed, the difference in character between different kinds of work is magnified by the fact that everyone else is facing the same decisions as you. If you choose a kind of work mainly for how well it pays, you'll be surrounded by other people who chose it for the same reason, and that will make it even more soul-sucking than it seems from the outside. Whereas if you choose work you're genuinely interested in, you'll be surrounded mostly by other people who are genuinely interested in it, and that will make it extra inspiring. This pretty well states the soul-suckingness of working in industry.

anon291 2y ago
I know the teacher thing is a nice 'feel-good' example, but based on the experience of my own mother's colleagues, for many teachers in these low income areas, the paycheck is also all they care about.
- will-burner 2y ago
  For me, it wasn't just about a feel-good thing, I enjoyed being around and had the most fun time on a day to day basis when hanging out and working with the high school teachers. I met them all at a summer program, so it was probably the more engaged teachers. Also, the teachers were from the same demographics as the students, so it wasn't white savior type people, but people from the actual community.
  - anon291 2y ago

tuktuktuk 2y ago

the question is when

aserafini 2y ago

I wonder what Paul's definition of "young" is in the sentence and why he qualifies this as only applicable to "young" people. Is he proposing that "old" people will have misaligned thinking about what needs to be built? I am 41 with two kids. > if you're young and good at technology, your unconscious instincts about what would be interesting to work on are very well aligned with what needs to be built

DmitryTitov 2y ago

Have you ever been in a situation where you really want to do what you love to do, but simply don't have the money to exist and have to do something else?

Viliam1234 2y ago
Perhaps a lot of advice should start with: "Step Zero -- have enough money so that you can afford to do Steps One through Ten".